One Call Systems

Because pipelines must cross the countryside to deliver products over long distances, the pipeline has many neighbors. The pipeline crosses creeks and rivers, highways and roads, farmers’ fields, parks, and may be close to homes, businesses or other community centers. To protect the communities, pipeline neighbors, sensitive environmental areas, as well as the pipeline itself, the pipeline industry and other operators of underground facilities joined together in creating notification centers that are used by anyone preparing to conduct work close to the pipeline.

These centers – called one-call centers – serve as the clearinghouse for excavation activities that are planned close to pipelines and other underground utilities. One-call centers help to protect 911 emergency telephone service, underground power lines, water and sewer pipes and energy pipelines.

The one-call programs work like this. A call center is set up so that anyone who will be digging or excavating using mechanized equipment-- commercial contractors, road maintenance crews, telephone pole installers, fence builders, landscape companies, or home owners (to name just a few) -- can make one telephone call to give notice of their plans to dig in a specific area 48 and sometimes upto 72 hours prior to any excavation activity.

The center then acts as a clearinghouse to inform the owners and operators of underground facilities in the area identified in the work plan so that they can go out and mark their facilities (spray paint on the surface directly above the facility, place flags identifying the type of underground service).

The person doing the project must wait the specified time during which the marking of the facilities is accomplished before beginning the project. Everyone has to cooperate so that the project can be completed as planned and the underground facilities are marked and protected during the work.

Energy pipelines are especially concerned about excavation around a pipeline since the release of petroleum or natural gas can have devastating results.

One-call programs are organized and operated at the state level and are generally governed by state law although they are normally not supported by tax dollars. One-call centers are funded by the underground facilities in that state, usually on a per call basis.

Some people mistakenly believe that they don't need to contact a one-call center because they think they can tell the precise location of a pipeline by drawing a straight line between right-of-way marker signs. This is a myth for two main reasons:

• Right-of-way markers along a pipeline route or at a grade crossing only show the approximate location of a pipeline because the right-of-way they are marking is much wider than the pipeline. Thus, the markers are not always located precisely over a line. (Nor do the markers indicate the depth of the line.)
• A pipeline may curve or make an angle underground as it runs between markers in order to avoid some natural or manmade feature such as a historical site or another underground facility such as a television cable.

Using the one-call system when digging around an energy pipeline, or any other underground feature, is the only way to determine the true location of a pipeline. Even after the area has been marked, any digging around the marks should be carefully conducted to precisely locate the facility.